What's New?

Adobe's latest update for Lightroom Classic CC includes some major changes. At first glance, it doesn’t look much, but under the hood, it has changed quite a bit. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the major upgrades Lightroom. Be sure and check out the video below for a full walk-through of the new features.

Dehaze Slider Moved to Basic Panel

The first change that you notice right away is that the Dehaze slider has finally been moved up inside the Basic panel. It used to be under Effects tab, but now, Adobe has realized that it is more of a basic adjustment and it belongs under the Basic panel. I, personally think that’s a great decision by Adobe.

Live Preview Presets

Finally Adobe has given us full live previews.It's a small, but an important change is in the way we can preview Presets. Earlier, if we wanted to see how a preset would look, we could only see it in this small Navigator window. Now while that did show what the photo would look like, it was just too small to be useful. Now having full live previews in the main development pane, can really allow us to see the changes each preset makes.

Presents Now Can Be Viewed: Live Full Pane Previews

Presets Are Available in Adobe Camera RAW

A behind the scenes change that Adobe has made is they changed the format of the presets. Previously presets would be <.lrt >template files, now they are going to be .xmp files which means that they will also be compatible with Adobe Camera RAW plugin and not just Lightroom. So, you can use your Lightroom presets in the Adobe Camera RAW plugin as well.

Profiles Totally Rewritten

We have always had profiles, but they have been buried under the Camera Calibration panel. The new profiles are actually much more powerful than the ones we’ve had before this update. Some Lightroom experts are even calling it the presets of the future; and I think I agree. These may just eventually replace presets.

New Adobe Color Profile

Adobe Old Standard Profile

Adobe Old Standard Profile

New Adobe Color Profile

In the Profile Browser, you will have all the different categories of profiles listed. You have Adobe Raw, Camera Matching & Legacy Profiles that are mainly expanding on the profiles you originally had in the previous versions. Below them are the new Creative Profiles. By default, there are Artistic, B&W, Modern and Vintage; but you can also install new ones and add more to the list.

How are Profiles Different from Presets?

1: No Sliders Were Adjusted in These Profiles

Normally, when you start editing, let’s say you have a dark image, you move the Exposure, you change the Shadows slider. If you were to then go ahead and choose a preset, and that preset had different settings for Exposure and Shadows, it would overwrite the settings that you have made. It would take all of these sliders to where the preset says they should be. Not where you had set them in earlier step.

On the other hand, these profiles do not move ANY sliders. They don’t overwrite any of your settings. So, you can adjust your exposure and your shadows and any other settings and then apply the profile, and your sliders would still be in the positions where you had kept them and it would still apply the creative effect you chose.

2: Fader Amount Slider

The second way in which these Creative Profiles are different is that they come with an Amount slider, which acts kind of like an Opacity slider. If you want to reduce the effect of the profile on your photo, you can simply tone it down using just this one slider.

Conclusion

I think this update is a great start to our future with Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom Presets and Profiles I believe are destined to merge into more powerful Profiles of the future. Making a more powerful useful tool. Watch for user created profiles to hit the market soon!